Instant Reaction: Trump Special Counsel New Indictment

Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news. 0:00:07.000 --> 0:00:10.200 The US Special Council appointed to investigate claims of interference 0:00:10.200 --> 0:00:13.640 in the twenty twenty election filed updated charges against Donald 0:00:13.640 --> 0:00:16.920 Trump on Tuesday. With more, we've got Bloomberg News US 0:00:17.040 --> 0:00:20.520 legal reporter Eric Larson. He's here in our Bloomberg Interactive 0:00:20.520 --> 0:00:24.200 Brokers studio talk about a surprise fall of filing. 0:00:25.239 --> 0:00:27.360 Come as it really did come as a surprise, and 0:00:27.480 --> 0:00:30.360 of it, we were expecting there to be additional court 0:00:30.400 --> 0:00:32.920 hearings in the case in Washington to see what was 0:00:32.960 --> 0:00:35.600 going to happen next, whether or not the judge there 0:00:35.600 --> 0:00:39.040 would just sort of decide on her own what charges 0:00:39.080 --> 0:00:41.879 in the in the case could go forward given that 0:00:41.920 --> 0:00:46.080 Supreme Court landmark ruling that presidents have some immunity from 0:00:46.120 --> 0:00:48.440 criminal charges. So it was just a wait and see 0:00:48.479 --> 0:00:49.879 what was going to happen with the case. And now 0:00:49.920 --> 0:00:53.320 we know there's a so called superseding indictment, a brand 0:00:53.360 --> 0:00:56.280 new indictment by Jack Smith. They've put in here that 0:00:56.360 --> 0:00:59.360 according like this is their view of how the case 0:00:59.440 --> 0:01:04.560 needed to given that landmark Supreme Court ruling in Trump's 0:01:04.560 --> 0:01:08.720 favor largely, So now we'll sort of restart the case 0:01:08.800 --> 0:01:11.640 a little bit as it moves forward here. 0:01:11.800 --> 0:01:14.119 Yeah, from what I understand, the new indictment cutting certain 0:01:14.160 --> 0:01:18.400 allegations related to Trump's communications with government officials, including the 0:01:18.480 --> 0:01:22.200 section related to his alleged efforts to involve the Justice Department, 0:01:23.120 --> 0:01:25.880 But still those same for charges accusing him of conspiring 0:01:25.880 --> 0:01:28.319 to overturn the results of the twenty twenty election still there. 0:01:28.680 --> 0:01:31.440 So is it the whole idea is to make it 0:01:31.680 --> 0:01:33.560 a stronger case for Jacksmith. 0:01:33.840 --> 0:01:36.240 I think the idea is to make it a case that, 0:01:36.560 --> 0:01:39.880 if when it returns to the Supreme Court, will survive 0:01:40.280 --> 0:01:43.199 the new scrutiny that they've put up there. So it's 0:01:43.319 --> 0:01:45.800 all going to boil down to whether or not everything 0:01:45.800 --> 0:01:48.360 in the indictment can be viewed as an official act 0:01:48.440 --> 0:01:50.840 or on the outer boundaries of an official act, or 0:01:50.840 --> 0:01:55.040 whether it's private conduct. So Jack Smith's team is, you know, 0:01:55.080 --> 0:01:57.520 clearly that they've gone through they had another grand jury. 0:01:57.800 --> 0:02:00.480 You know, look at this, and I'm this is the 0:02:00.520 --> 0:02:03.240 case that they think will survive the Supreme Court ruling 0:02:03.320 --> 0:02:05.240 if it goes back to the Supreme Court. 0:02:05.600 --> 0:02:07.680 So go ahead, Well, so what happens next? 0:02:07.800 --> 0:02:10.720 So what happens next? I don't know exactly for sure. 0:02:10.800 --> 0:02:15.200 But if I had to excuse yeah, well, there's no 0:02:15.320 --> 0:02:19.360 chance of a trial happening before the election at this point. 0:02:19.800 --> 0:02:23.200 Even before this superseding indictment was filed, that seemed like 0:02:23.240 --> 0:02:27.280 it was off not going to happen. So what will 0:02:27.360 --> 0:02:31.360 happen is the case will potentially have a new arguments 0:02:31.360 --> 0:02:35.240 where Trump's lawyers will argue to dismiss this superseding indictment. 0:02:35.240 --> 0:02:37.960 You can be sure they'll be disagreement over whether or 0:02:38.000 --> 0:02:40.840 not this has been narrowed enough to fit the Supreme 0:02:40.880 --> 0:02:45.240 Court ruling. Trump's lawyers may seek to narrow it further, 0:02:45.360 --> 0:02:47.960 or to have the whole thing tossed out again is 0:02:47.960 --> 0:02:52.359 another possibility. So it really remains to be seen if 0:02:52.360 --> 0:02:54.400 this ever does go to trial. Of course, plenty of 0:02:54.440 --> 0:02:56.800 people say if Trump wins, he'll just have this case 0:02:56.880 --> 0:03:00.360 thrown out. If he loses, of course, then this case 0:03:00.760 --> 0:03:02.080 we'll proceed. 0:03:02.400 --> 0:03:05.120 Just reminder, this is completely separate from the Manhattan jury 0:03:05.200 --> 0:03:07.760 on May thirtieth finding Trump guilty on thirty four counts 0:03:07.760 --> 0:03:09.560 of falsifying business records. 0:03:09.680 --> 0:03:13.000 Right right, that's a separate case. He was convicted in 0:03:13.040 --> 0:03:15.679 that case that did go to trial, obviously. 0:03:15.280 --> 0:03:17.480 And he'll be sentenced or the Dutch judge he's supposed 0:03:17.480 --> 0:03:19.360 to be sentenced on September eighteenth. 0:03:19.200 --> 0:03:21.639 That is correct, and we are waiting for a decision 0:03:21.680 --> 0:03:25.320 from that judge, Juan Marshan here in Manhattan, on whether 0:03:25.400 --> 0:03:28.320 or not to delay that sentencing until after the election. 0:03:28.520 --> 0:03:31.520 Trump made sort of a last ditch motion saying that 0:03:31.520 --> 0:03:34.560 it would be election interference for him to be sentenced 0:03:34.600 --> 0:03:38.440 with the election so near, and some other arguments as well. 0:03:38.520 --> 0:03:43.520 If back to the filing from today, if Trump does 0:03:43.600 --> 0:03:45.880 win the election in November, can he make all of 0:03:45.880 --> 0:03:46.560 this go away? 0:03:47.080 --> 0:03:49.960 That is our understanding is that the Justice Department is 0:03:50.000 --> 0:03:53.560 part of the executive branch, of course, and the president 0:03:53.600 --> 0:03:56.840 has a lot of authority to pressure or direct the 0:03:56.960 --> 0:04:01.360 Justice Department on cases. That's idly expected that that is 0:04:01.400 --> 0:04:04.720 what Trump would do. It's less clear exactly what steps 0:04:04.720 --> 0:04:06.520 he would have to go through to get there. For example, 0:04:06.760 --> 0:04:10.440 if an Attorney general could theoretically challenge him on that. 0:04:10.560 --> 0:04:14.600 But again, this is a lot of hypotheticals. But certainly 0:04:14.680 --> 0:04:17.279 the legal experts that we've been speaking to for months 0:04:17.279 --> 0:04:20.120 now theorized that if Trump is elected, he would have 0:04:20.160 --> 0:04:21.520 this case tossed out. 0:04:21.720 --> 0:04:24.120 Sure about the Jack Smith. Yes, I mean, this is 0:04:24.600 --> 0:04:27.080 so remind us of kind of where we are on 0:04:27.120 --> 0:04:31.599 the case the white Board cases against former President Donald Trump. 0:04:31.680 --> 0:04:34.040 Sure, so the one that we know he's already lost. 0:04:34.440 --> 0:04:37.880 He faces up to four years in prison on thirty 0:04:37.880 --> 0:04:40.640 four counts of falsifying business records to hide that hush 0:04:40.680 --> 0:04:44.240 money payment to Stormy Daniels before the twenty sixteen elections. 0:04:44.240 --> 0:04:46.600 So it seems like so long, so long ago he 0:04:46.680 --> 0:04:50.520 was in president when he wasn't president. But he argues, 0:04:50.560 --> 0:04:53.640 actually that this immunity ruling from the Supreme Court affects 0:04:53.880 --> 0:04:56.440 that trial as well, even though it had nothing to 0:04:56.480 --> 0:04:59.520 do theoretically with being president. He said that the trial 0:04:59.640 --> 0:05:01.520 that we have here in New York that we covered 0:05:02.040 --> 0:05:05.560 was tainted by testimony and other evidence that wouldn't have 0:05:05.560 --> 0:05:09.160 been allowed under this Supreme Court standard, because even though 0:05:09.160 --> 0:05:11.520 the hush money was paid to Stormy Daniels before the 0:05:11.560 --> 0:05:15.400 twenty sixteen election, some of the witnesses were his White 0:05:15.400 --> 0:05:19.560 House officials. The payments that he made, for example, were made, 0:05:19.800 --> 0:05:22.640 you know, while he was president, repaying Michael Cohen his. 0:05:22.640 --> 0:05:27.920 How does that work though, Well. 0:05:26.440 --> 0:05:28.760 What he's saying is that some of the payments were 0:05:28.920 --> 0:05:31.640 when he was once in the White House, but initially 0:05:32.320 --> 0:05:34.840 the hush money was happened before he was even there. 0:05:34.880 --> 0:05:36.880 It was made by Michael Cohen one hundred and thirty 0:05:36.960 --> 0:05:39.919 thousand dollars and then he Cohen was and definitely before the. 0:05:39.920 --> 0:05:42.080 Supreme Court ruling on immunity, right. 0:05:42.040 --> 0:05:44.560 I mean it potentially is it is a long shot. 0:05:44.640 --> 0:05:47.240 The Manhattan dishest attorney says, there's no way this has 0:05:47.279 --> 0:05:49.880 an effect, and the case should the verdict should not 0:05:49.960 --> 0:05:51.840 be thrown out. So we'll wait to see what happens 0:05:51.839 --> 0:05:54.159 with that. Of course, the other Jack Smith case, the 0:05:54.200 --> 0:05:58.200 other federal case that was brought over Trump's taking of 0:05:58.440 --> 0:06:02.919 classified documents from the White House and his alleged obstruction 0:06:03.000 --> 0:06:05.080 of efforts to get them back, that was dismissed by 0:06:05.160 --> 0:06:08.800 Judge Eileen Cannon and Florida and the Special Counsel is 0:06:08.800 --> 0:06:11.800 going to be appealing to try to get that case revived. 0:06:11.480 --> 0:06:13.440 Wasn't there. And there's also the Georgia case. 0:06:13.839 --> 0:06:17.280 There's the Georgia case. Yes, a lot of drama from 0:06:17.279 --> 0:06:21.200 that one. It's sort of been on hold because of 0:06:21.279 --> 0:06:25.839 the dispute over Fannie Willis. The Fulton County District attorney 0:06:25.880 --> 0:06:28.640 there and the relationship that she had with the lead 0:06:29.360 --> 0:06:33.240 her lead prosecutor, and so there's been an effort to 0:06:33.279 --> 0:06:35.880 have her thrown out of the case. And I think 0:06:35.880 --> 0:06:38.760 we're just waiting for something to happen on that. So 0:06:38.800 --> 0:06:40.560 they have to straighten out the whole issue with that 0:06:40.640 --> 0:06:44.159 prosecutor before anything can happen again in that case. 0:06:45.240 --> 0:06:45.840 Unbelievable. 0:06:45.920 --> 0:06:47.039 Thank you so much, You're welcome. 0:06:47.040 --> 0:06:48.640 Thank you so much. That really puts it all in 0:06:49.560 --> 0:06:51.159 perspective and gets us up to date. 0:06:51.520 --> 0:06:53.479 I know, yeah, it's like, thank you. 0:06:53.480 --> 0:06:57.000 That's Bloomberg News US legal reporter Eric Larson, who wasn't 0:06:57.080 --> 0:06:59.240 scheduled to be on with us today, but so much. 0:06:59.279 --> 0:07:00.799 First, he's always to stay in August. 0:07:01.440 --> 0:07:03.400 He's always be happy to be here.